Mission

The Society for Art Publications of the Americas and its Meridian Gallery promote social, philosophical and spiritual change among previously isolated individuals and communities. Society for Art Publications of the Americas is the title selected in 1985 for the 501(c)(3) non-profit whose programs bear the name "Meridian" to signify hemispheric, geographical and cross cultural concerns: Meridian Gallery (1989), Meridian Interns Program (1996), Meridian Music: Composers in Performance (1998), Meridian Dance (2010), and MERIDIAN STUDIO VISITS (2014).

Concept

A commitment to nonviolent social change and to the inherent value of diversity has animated the SAPA (nonprofit parent of Meridian Gallery) since it began in 1986. Initially dedicated to breaking down racial, cultural, economic and geographic barriers through the arts, Meridian Gallery rapidly began to move into its purpose - to embody change - and as it moved, to assume a tangible responsibility to explore issues and to make spaces where youth and adults could access experientially a widening of the possible.

History

In the Summer of 1989, Meridian Gallery opened its downtown performance and exhibition space with a show curated by Rolando Castellón called Drawings from the Fourth World. That arresting show of work by seven San Francisco Bay Area artists from seven cultures and ethnicities set the pattern for much that was to come: performances of music, film, poetry, occasionally – dance – and from the beginning, Saturday Afternoon Forums, where dozens of interdisciplinary artists have given voice. With his phrase “the fourth world,” Castellón refers to "that space that exists between geographical, political, and aesthetic borders.” That space is the one that Meridian consistently explores with its exhibitions, events, and concerts to this day.